Campers throw coloured chalk into the air during an event at URJ Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. A recent report was released discussing reports of sexual misconduct over the last 50 years around the nation.
Source: Religion News Service
Another investigation into the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults by a religious organization, and another sorry tale of facilitation and coverup.
This time it’s not the usual Christian organization such as the Catholic, Anglican or Baptist Churches in which such abuses are now almost accepted as routine, scarcely raising an eyebrow, but this time it is a Jewish organization - The Union for Reform Judaism. The investigation was conducted by the New York law firm Debevoise & Plimpton and is published in full[PDF] on the organization's website. The report comes with a warning that some portions of the report are sensitive and graphic and is not intended for children.
The Executive summary of the report includes:
During this investigation, we learned of multiple incidents of sexual misconduct across five decades, which break down as follows:The generally relaxed and even tolerant attitude towards sexual misconduct can be gauged from the following section of the report:
- 17 incidents of sexual misconduct by adults (over 18 years of age) against minors (under 18 years of age) across all the URJ’s youth programs. Of these 17 incidents, 10 involved boys and girls under 16 years of age and seven involved older campers or counselors-in-training who were under 18 years old and who were subject to sexual misconduct by camp staff over 18 years old. The majority of sexual misconduct in this category (adults with minors) was perpetrated by college-aged camp counselors, none of whom currently work at URJ camps. We are not aware of any sexual touching or sexual assault by adults against minors under 16 years of age that occurred after the summer of 2017.
- 16 incidents of sexual misconduct between peers under 18 years old across all URJ youth programs.
- 9 incidents of sexual misconduct between adults. Most of the incidents took place between young adults at camps, but some took place in other URJ workplaces
We also learned of multiple incidents of boundary crossing behaviors, for example, excessive hugging, rubbing backs or other physical contact that made witnesses uncomfortable, but do not rise to the level of sexual misconduct. They do, however, warrant supervisory attention and have, in recent years, resulted in discipline up to and including termination.
We are heartbroken and distressed by these accounts and we profoundly apologize for the enduring pain caused to so many. Going forward, we are committed to creating environments that better protect the safety and well-being of everyone in our community.Our work also addressed hiring practices and we find that the URJ did, in the past, sometimes hire rabbis or others, notwithstanding their prior dismissal from congregations for sexual misconduct. We do not find that this was an intentional effort to protect rabbis who engaged in sexual misconduct. Rather, these employment decisions resulted from sincerely held beliefs in redemption and the process of Teshuvah.6 Still, the historic lack of transparency about how sexual misconduct complaints against rabbis were handled and resolved has resulted in lingering mistrust of the URJ as well as of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (the “CCAR”), the Reform Movement’s rabbinic leadership organization.
More generally, we find that both women and men have experienced sexual harassment while applying for or working for the URJ, including unwelcome sexual comments, sexual advances and sexual assault. In the camp setting in particular, multiple witnesses, including male and female rabbis, URJ employees (current and former) and former campers referred to the prior generation of camp directors as “an old boys club.” Certain of these camp directors were giants of the camping movement, but could also be lewd and inappropriate with women. We did not receive any reports of sexual misconduct toward minor campers by these or any other camp directors.
Sexual misconduct is often underreported and undoubtedly there has been underreporting of complaints to the URJ in the past and to us during this investigation.7 We were struck, however, by the number of witnesses with whom we spoke who had not previously reported to the URJ because they feared retaliation, either from supervisors, rabbis, peers or others in the Reform Movement.
[…]
A number of themes and cultural points emerged through this work:
First, several of the sexual misconduct incidents we learned of and that involved minors or young adults revolved around lack of adequate consent. We find that many of the incidents involving campers, NFTY participants or counselors 16 years of age or older began consensually, but went beyond the point of affirmative consent. Sometimes, these incidents involved power imbalances based on age or position within the camp or NFTY region.
Second, multiple witnesses whom we credit described a now-closed camp for high schoolers, Kutz Camp, as having a permissive and sexualized culture. We received similar corroborated observations about a pervasive sexualized or “hook up” culture within NFTY, mirroring recent articles in online publications. 8 Those observations and reports focused on peer pressure to “hook up,” a “points” system that rewards sexual liaisons among teens and the need for greater supervision and training around consent, particularly in situations involving age or other power differentials between the parties.
VI. The URJ’s Past Hiring PracticesIt seems then that religion in general creates an environment in which paedophiles and sexual predators can thrive. Something about the power and positions of trust that becoming a priest or rabbi, or other minister of religion seems to attract those predisposed to abuse their positions of trust and authority over others, especially impressionable minors and emotionally vulnerable adults. Or maybe it is just the nature of predominantly male social hierarchies that closely resemble similar social structures in other apes in which the females are expected to be subservient to males. Any reading of the Old Testament, or the Qur'an will show that this is exactly the same social structure that was the norm at the time these religions were being created.
A. Historic Hiring Practices at the URJ
Twelve witnesses reported that the URJ had a historic practice of hiring rabbis as URJ employees after those rabbis had been fired by their congregations for sexual misconduct. Six of the 12 people who reported this issue, however, were unable to provide specific examples. Some of the witnesses who did provide a name were not actually aware of the particular conduct that preceded any URJ hiring. Current and former URJ employees acknowledged that the URJ had in the past sometimes hired rabbis who had been terminated by their congregations for sexual misconduct. We credit that, prior to 1996, URJ leadership believed that an incident of sexual misconduct might end a congregational career, but that it did not necessarily mean that a rabbi’s career had to be over completely, assuming that there had been a successful Teshuvah process.
We were able to corroborate—through current and former URJ employees—that there were at least five rabbis who were hired by the-then UAHC prior to 1996 following sexual misconduct in their congregations. Each of these rabbis is either retired or deceased. None of the witnesses who contacted us about this past practice were victims or had direct knowledge of misconduct against these rabbis for the time period after they joined the-then UAHC.
B. Rabbi Jay Davis
One specific example of this past hiring practice is noteworthy both because the sexual misconduct in question involved minors, and the rabbi is still practicing. Jay (A.K.A. Bahir) Davis, the son and grandson of prominent rabbis, was denied ordination by HUC, first in 1981 and then again in 1985, following numerous, credible reports of sexual misconduct with minors he taught at a Westchester, New York congregation. Davis denied any wrongdoing. We have reviewed portions of sworn trial testimony, contemporaneous documents and written statements from four minors whom Davis taught at the congregation while attending HUC. These accounts, which we credit, describe sexual touching, intercourse, and oral sex with 13 to 15-year-olds, as well as other highly inappropriate classroom comments and games between 1977 and 1981, while Davis was in his late twenties.
The UAHC hired Davis in the mid 1980’s while HUC considered, for a second time, whether he should be ordained, and continued to employ him after HUC again refused ordination.24 We have reviewed contemporaneous correspondence that confirms that three (unnamed) rabbis privately ordained Davis, and have confirmed that he later worked at a Reform Movement congregation in Florida for approximately a decade starting in 1988.25 During this time, he served on the faculty at Camp Coleman, and was active in NFTY’s southeast region. We did not find any evidence of further misconduct with minors after he was ordained, although in 2006 he faced an ethics investigation and was suspended by OHALAH: Association of Rabbis and Cantors for Jewish Renewal (“OHALAH”). At the conclusion of that investigation, he resigned from that organization.
[…]
Davis is still a practicing rabbi in Colorado and now goes by the name Bahir Davis.26 An online biography notes his connection to the Reform Movement, stating that he holds two Smichot, one signed by a past URJ President and another from the founder of the Jewish Renewal Movement. The biography goes on to state that he once held the post of Executive Director of the Introduction to Judaism Program for the URJ.27
As I proposed in The Evolution of God:
The alpha male now sits on some imaginary vantage point overlooking the tribe, still the benevolent protector and leader, the guardian of the law, and the vengeful enforcer of his right to grant permission for sexual activity and for whose permission all, but especially the females, must wait until he grants it through the symbolic ceremony of marriage.The priesthoods of this imaginary alpha male still feel entitled to their privileged sexual relations with the females and children in the tribe, with his blessing as a reward for their loyalty.
His loyal supporters who act as his enforcers, still exist though. They have become a self-selecting band who act as though the alpha male still exists and whose claim to power and authority is that they represent him and are doing his bidding. They have become his priesthood.
God: the imaginary benevolent leader who is also the object of fear; the loving protector who punishes transgression and who takes a special interest in our sexual activities. The man whose authority to rule is now so deeply embedded in human culture that many regard it as a sin punishable by unimaginable pain and suffering and withdrawal of the alpha male's 'love' even to question it. And the leader who may just take it into his head to show us his power by some random act of indiscriminate violence if we're not very careful.
A cultural idea which is a fossil relic of our evolution as an ape on the plains of East Africa.
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